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Sega
(as Service Games) | founders = | location_city = Ōta, Tokyo | location_country = Japan | area_served = Worldwide | key_people = | products = *Arcade games *Arcade system games *Video game consoles *Mobile games | num_employees = ~4,865 (FY 2014) | divisions = | subsid = |parent = Sega Holdings |owner = – ) *CSK Holdings Corporation ( – ) *Sega Sammy Holdings ( –present) }} | homepage = * * }} }} , originally short for Service Games and officially styled as SEGA, is a Japanese multinational video game developer and publisher headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, with multiple offices around the world. Sega developed and manufactured numerous home video game consoles from 1983 to 2001, but the financial losses incurred from their Dreamcast console caused the company to restructure itself in 2001, and focus on providing software as a third-party developer from then on. Nonetheless, Sega remains the world's most prolific arcade producer, with over 500 games in over 70 franchises on more than 20 different arcade system boards since 1981. Sega, along with their sub-studios, are known for their multi-million selling game franchises including Sonic the Hedgehog, Virtua Fighter, Wikipedia: Phantasy Star, Yakuza, and Total War, among others. Sega's head offices are located in Tokyo. Sega's North American division, Sega of America, is headquartered in Irvine, California, having moved there from San Fransisco in 2015. Sega's European division, Sega Europe, is headquartered in London. History On November 27, 1998, Sega launched the Dreamcast in Japan. The console was competitively priced, partly due to the use of off-the-shelf components, but it also featured technology that allowed for more technically impressive games than its direct competitors, the Nintendo 64 and PlayStation. An analog 56k modem was also included, allowing for online multiplayer. It featured titles such as the action-puzzle title ChuChu Rocket!, Phantasy Star Online, the first console-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), Quake III Arena and Alien Front Online, the first console game with online voice chat. The Dreamcast's launch in Japan was a failure; launching with a small library of software and in the shadow of the upcoming PlayStation 2, the system would gain little ground, despite several successful games in the region. After closures of all their former American developers in 1995, and the closure of the PC SegaSoft division, Sega invested in the American Visual Concepts and the French No Cliché, although the latter was closed in 2001. The Dreamcast's western launch in 1999 was accompanied by a large amount of both first-party and third-party software and an aggressive marketing campaign. In contrast to the Japanese launch, the Western launch earned the distinction of the "most successful hardware launch in history," selling a then-unprecedented 500,000 consoles in its first week in North America. Sega was able to hold onto this momentum in the US almost until the launch of Sony's PlayStation 2. The Dreamcast is home to several innovative and critically acclaimed games, including one of the first cel-shaded titles, Jet Set Radio (Jet Grind Radio in North America); Seaman, a game involving communication with a fish-type creature via microphone; Samba de Amigo, a rhythm game involving the use of maracas, and Shenmue, a large-scope adventure game with freeform gameplay and a detailed in-game city. Sega also produced the NAOMI series, which were the last arcade boards built uniquely rather than being based on existing consoles and PC architecture. In late 1999, Sega Enterprises chairman Isao Okawa spoke at an Okawa Foundation meeting, saying that Sega's focus in the future would shift from hardware to software, but adding that they were still fully behind the Dreamcast. On November 1, 2000, Sega changed its company name from Sega Enterprises to Sega Corporation. Category:Video game companies Category:SEGA